A wildfire moves to within 8/10ths of a mile from Highway 200 late last Saturday/early Sunday near mile marker 95. On Friday afternoon, Highway 200 was closed again as a result of fire activity.(Photo: Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office)

A dramatic blowup of the Alice Creek fire late Saturday and early Sunday prompted evacuations and the closure of Montana State Highway 200.

Highway 200 will remain closed until 8 a.m. Monday morning, Lewis and Clark County Sgt. Shane Hildenstab said Sunday afternoon. At that time, county officials will reassess the situation and determine if reopening the roadway is possible.

"Probably about an hour ago the smoke started coming back in really heavy," Hildenstab said around 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

"The wind is changing by the minute out here," he added.

Traffic coming out of Lincoln is being diverted at Highway 279.

On the other side of the Rogers Pass, the highway is closed at Highway 287 about 26 miles away, which is Bowman’s Corner.

Early Sunday, the fire was burning a half mile from the highway just east of Rogers Pass near the state Department of Transportation shop at highway marker 97. Hildenstab said Sunday afternoon the fire had come within about 200 yards of the structure.

Dutton said firefighters made a valiant effort to save the shop, where diesel fuel and vehicles are kept.

Hildenstab said there were plenty of motorists routed Sunday during the closure, but no vehicle-related accidents occurred as vehicles detoured around the closure.

"Highway 200 is a pretty high traffic area on the weekend," he said. "A lot of people are coming back across from the Griz game yesterday, so it's a fair amount of traffic being rerouted."

The road was initially closed late Saturday night after the fire blew up.

It was reopened. Then high winds hit again at 6 a.m. Sunday and the highway was closed again and remains so.

“And all of a sudden it stopped,” Dutton said at 11 a.m. “Now it’s starting to boil again and it jumped a dozer line.”

The Alice Creek fire blew up again at about 6 a.m. Sunday.(Photo: Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office)

“If we can safely get people through we’ll open it up but right now the fire is a little under a half mile away from us at mile marker 97,” Dutton said.

The fire also came out on the prairie last night, Dutton said.

Firefighters fought it along Highway 435, which runs between Highway 200 and Augusta.

“They’ve been up all night working on it,” Dutton said.

Authorities contacted 10 homeowners to tell them to evacuate including cabin owners and ranchers.

“The ranchers we talked to are not leaving,” Dutton said. “They are tending to their livestock.”

It was a wild night, said Dutton, officers and deputies with the Lewis and Clark Sheriff’s Office, Montana Highway Patrol, U.S. Forest Service and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks assisted in closing the highway and with evacuations.

People were still traveling the highway when it had to be closed.

Few motorists stopped, which was fortunate, the sheriff said. It was understandable that they kept moving considering what the blaze looked like in the night, he said.

“You can see there’s a power behind that large ball of fire,” Dutton said.

That prompted the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office to issue evacuation notices for approximately eight homes on the north and south side of Highway 200 from Elk Meadows, east to the South Fork of the Dearborn River.

A Red Cross shelter is open at Wolf Creek Elemenatry School.

A red flag warning remains in effect through 9 p.m. Monday.

The fire started July 22 north of Lincoln.

Prolonged hot, dry and windy weather prompted long runs in standing dead timber and the fire crossed the Continental Divide and is now burning in the Alice Creek Drainage, Falls Creek Drainage, Red Mountain and Lewis and Clark Pass areas about 20 miles south of Augusta.

The Alice Creek Fire along the Continental Divide grew 800 acres Thursday in all directions.(Photo: U.S. Forest Service Photo/InciWeb)